Expedia Launches New Rewards Program for Travelers

Expedia.com, the online travel agency, unveiled the Expedia Rewards program, created for loyal Expedia customers. Expedia Rewards allows members to earn points on the hotels, flights, packages and activities they book on Expedia.com. The program provides Expedia customers with a platform to earn one to four points per dollar spent, regardless of which airline or hotel they book on Expedia.com.

Travelers can redeem those points for flights on more than 140 airlines, or on hotel coupons at more than 70,000 hotels, with the option of mixing and matching airlines and choosing between a wide range of national brand and independent hotels. All of this is possible with no black-out dates or restrictions. Membership is free. Beginning March 28, Expedia customers can join Expedia Rewards by visiting www.expedia.com/rewards.

Customers get one point for every dollar spent on all flights, hotels and activities. Book them as a package and the earn rates go up. For example, book hotel and flight together and earn two base points per dollar spent. Book flight, hotel, car and activities together and earn four base points per dollar spent. If the customer books a VIP Access hotel, they get an additional bonus point per dollar spent. Members of the Expedia Elite Plus Program also earn an extra bonus point per dollar on hotel and package bookings.

In addition, through Aug. 31, 2011, Expedia Rewards members can earn double base points when booking an Expedia Special Rate hotel or hotel package that is paid with a MasterCard card. Advance registration is required for this offer. Details are available at www.expedia.com/rewards.

Expedia Rewards is structured in a way to allow travelers to accumulate points very quickly. For example, if a customer books a package for two travelers featuring a roundtrip flight, four nights in a hotel and a rental car, that trip may cost $2,000. With Expedia Rewards, that would yield 6,000 points. Should the member book that same trip three times, they should have earned enough points to qualify for a free hotel night. Should they add an activity to each package booking, the accumulated points may earn them two free hotel nights. Should they also register for the Expedia Rewards MasterCard promotion and pay with a MasterCard card each time, the total points can earn them six free hotel nights. Should they choose a VIP Access hotel each time, they can earn enough for eight free hotel nights after just three package bookings.

“With Expedia Rewards you can earn points for all your travel booked through Expedia.com, irrespective of the hotel or airline brand,” said Scott Durchslag, president of Expedia Worldwide. “Many other travel reward programs require you to lock into a single brand, but we don’t. That means that with Expedia Rewards, you don’t have to be a point-optimizing road warrior to quickly earn free travel. This is a great example of our new ‘Expedia Everywhere’ strategy providing travelers the best choices in the industry and richly rewarding them for planning, booking, and traveling with Expedia anytime, anywhere.”

In addition to Expedia Rewards points, Expedia customers who are part of an airline frequent-flyer program or eligible credit card rewards program can also earn their frequent flyer and credit card program points when booking eligible flights on www.Expedia.com. Loyalty benefits are not limited to Expedia Rewards. Expedia recently announced an upgrade to the Expedia Elite Plus Program, through which Elite Plus members can earn free room upgrades and VIP perks at "VIP Access" hotels in select markets nationwide. Expedia customers automatically earn membership in Expedia Elite Plus when they book more than 15 room nights, or spend more than $10,000 on hotels and airfare, at Expedia.com in a calendar year. For more information, visit www.expedia.com/rewards.

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